Thread: Smallbore shooting

Yea, have to move those legs and hips. You have time to re set up several times per shot if needed-a good breathing routine (I like 3-5 breath cycles depending on how much stress I'm trying to work out of my body/mind)with your eyes shut until your at the point in your breathing that you choose to shoot at(personally I use a point just above empty that I find fairly repeatable due to a rib touching down on the floor at the point-I should point out its a damaged rib so won't work for everyone) then open to check what your natural point of aim is-you shouldn't be having to mussel the rifle on. If it's not pointing at a ten I reset up my body or check it by relaxing and doing the breathing thing again-you do have time. Once I'm happy with my natural point of aim I start breathing through my cycle (the rifle should be going perfectly up and down with no side to side if you have your position right) while applying pressure to the trigger and doing minute movements of the hips to get things alined on the .1 it my vision start to fade before the trigger brakes I start the whole breathing cycle again.

Just what I find works for me

Some great tips there from @res
Not sure if covered though but when settling in to your natural position either close your eyes or glance to one side, go through your breathing routine, and then open eyes and see where your sights are pointing. Make adjustments as required and recheck.

I assume everyone now shoots the modified Estonian position (right leg drawn up) rather than "army". Estonian raises the chest and reduces the effect of diaphragm motion.

Don't hold your shots too long. Something I was guilty of - little voice in head saying "she'll be right", it seldom was. The longer you hold a situation called retina burn in occurs where you think you are still nicely holding the bull - you are not. I used to stop and restart the sequence. Sometimes would even raise and close bolt and proceed.

Shooting with both eyes open is another area of discussion.

Unfortunately, trying to follow all technique advise at once just screws up a young shooter and takes some of the fun out of it, although once you have been shooting for a while you become keen to improve obviously and apply all advise but better to concentrate on only few a facets initially - position and breathing.

And once everything is mastered you can then progress to subconsciously firing the shot between heartbeats, oh and you have slowed your heartbeat as well ha ha.